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Here’s a letter that I sent a few weeks back to the New York Times:
I’m flabbergasted by the faith that people – left, right, and center – put in politics and in the candidates du jour. Millions of Americans today famously believe that a President Obama will fundamentally “change” America (into what, though, is unclear). And today, David Brooks suggests that a President McCain might well quash special-interest-group politics and turn Uncle Sam’s attention chiefly to the general interest (“Talking Versus Doing [2],” May 20).
These are delusions. I’ll bet $100 that, regardless of which candidate wins the White House, in 2013 the federal budget will still contain agricultural subsidies and tariffs that take billions of dollars from the many to give to the few – that a majority of Members of Congress will continue to successfully sponsor earmarks – that the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare will be no smaller than they are today – and that partisan bickering will be every bit as much a part of the daily news as it is now.
Politics delivers Svengalis, not salvation.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux